As part of Busan International Film Festival in South Korea
HONG KONG SAR 9 October 2023 – PCCW (SEHK: 0008) – Viu, Asia’s leading pan-regional OTT video streaming service, announced today that it had won the award for “Special Contribution for K-Wave” at the Asia Contents Awards and Global OTT Awards (ACA & G.OTT Awards) 2023 held in South Korea on 8 October 2023. The newly introduced category recognises the contribution of OTT streamers to making K-content a global phenomenon. Viu is one of the first winners in the category, having brought Korean and other Asian content to a wide audience globally, with over 60 million active users in its footprint.
Co-hosted by South Korea’s Ministry of Science and ICT and Busan Metropolitan City authorities, and co-organised by the Busan International Film Festival and Korea Radio Promotion Association, the ACA & G.OTT Awards celebrates the achievements of excellent content made for TV, OTT and online channels across Asia. The event is a rebrand of the fifth-edition Asia Contents Awards (ACA), as part of its efforts to embrace changes in the growing content industry and support well-made domestic and international content.
Since its launch in 2015, Viu has been one of the strongest promoters of Asian content, especially K-content, outside of Korea in the digital space. Currently in its eighth year of operation, Viu offers localised K-dramas on the same day as their telecast in Korea, on top of actively investing in Korean Viu Originals. Viu was also among the first OTT service providers to launch a freemium model in Asia, which helped accelerate its uptake and the legal consumption of Korean content in the digital space, effectively monetising K-content for both AVOD and SVOD.
Janice Lee, CEO, Viu & PCCW Media Group, said, “We are grateful for the recognition of Viu for its achievements as an OTT streamer in popularising K-content globally and Asian Viu Originals across Asia, the Middle East and South Africa. We thank our many partners in Korea for entrusting us with their creative work and for lending us their support over the years. Korean content has been one of the key pillars of our success across markets. It continues to be an important part of our mix of offerings alongside Viu Originals productions, which include local adaptations of popular K-dramas like She Was Pretty, upcoming W in Malaysia, Flower of Evil in the Philippines, and the recently announced remake of Reborn Rich in Thailand. We remain committed to bringing the best of Korean and other Asian content to a global audience.”
Moon Munyeon Kim, Chief of Organising Committee, ACA & G.OTT commented, “We’re truly honoured and grateful for receiving over 210 entries for our awards event this year and would like to share the valuable moments with all nominees and winners of each award category in Busan. Most significantly, it’s our great pleasure to celebrate Viu as a winner of ‘Special Contribution for K-Wave’ category. We really appreciate Viu’s contribution to distributing K-content worldwide with various international languages and believe that Viu is the one to show us how K-content moves in the global market.”